| This research originates from concerns about democracy, the informed citizen, and a belief in the crucial role of news media in shaping citizens' political awareness and knowledge. The author builds upon the concept of argument repertoire (Cappella et al., 2002), and expands it to include the breadth of issue interpretations that citizens assign to issues and arguments. The central goal is to identify means by which news media may help promote public awareness and consideration of reasons for supporting differing issue positions.;Merging scholarship in political psychology, information processing, and schema theory, this study introduced the reflective cue---a contextual cue designed to fit news media formats---and hypothesized that inclusion of this cue in media coverage of issues would affect information processing and cognitive orientations associated with informed citizenship, media, and democracy.;A controlled experiment was conducted (n=265). Findings support the study's predictions that the inclusion of a reflective cue in news coverage impacted information-processing behavior and cognitive orientations related to the role of informed citizenry and media in democracy. Interestingly, exposure to the cue did not enhance subjects' expression of issue-position reasons. The author discusses possible explanations for the findings and offers directions for future research on contextual cues, the concept of argument repertoire, and the role of news media in the democratic problem solving process. |
